Posts from — July 2016

July 3rd and July 4th
Sunday morning was cool and wet and foggy but we decided to hike to Signal Hill no matter what the weather was. We headed down the city walking path and then started the climb up to the top of Signal Hill. Signal Hill is where Marconi sent the first wireless transmissions across the Atlantic Ocean to England.
Once we got to the top it was fogged right in and from 50 yards you could not see the Tower. So a bit of a downer as normally you can see all the main harbour of St. John’s and all the way to Cape Spear. Anyway we decided to take the hiking trail down and it was much better because at a certain point we got out of the fog and could see the harbour lighthouse and the rest of the harbour basin.
Monday morning we woke up and the sky was clear as could be and visibility was unlimited so we decided to hike to the top of Signal Hill once more. This time we were going to take the trail up and then come down the main road.  
The only difference besides the fog was that now the wind was blowing at 60+ km’s so we were getting blown all over the place walking the trail and you had to make sure you were holding on at certain points and had secure footing.
The interesting thing about this hiking trail is that it is part of the Trans-Canada Trail system and probably the only place that part of the trail crosses a persons home deck near the end. Oh and it is probably the only part of the trail in Canada where you have to hang on to a chain secured to the mountain because the ledge in narrow and it’s a 300 ft drop to the ocean.

Finally, not too far from where the trail comes back into the City is the Memorial of Mile “0” where Terry Fox started his Marathon of Hope.

July 2nd and it is time to head to St. John’s Newfoundland. After a couple flights and a bit of a long layover in Halifax we ended up in St. John’s and it was time for dinner.
So, off we headed to George Street as we had heard from the Hotel front desk that they were having a Canada Day celebration which included a street party and concert by a local band and the Maritimes best band “The Fables”.
The organizers had blocked off 2 city blocks and you could wander from bar to restaurant to pub with drink in hand and enjoy the festivities. The first band was the Derina Harvey Band a Celtic Rock Band, they were very good and they got the smallish crowd warmed up and dancing on a cool evening.
Then on time at 9:30 The Fables started playing and the crowd tripled in size and excitement and dancing, etc. etc. Check out this You Tube link to a short bit of their song “Heave Away”. https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=VkfYRy3oj4M

The Fables played all their standard songs plus a few other local ditties that had the crowd jumping for 1 1/2 hrs. We had a great time there and danced and stomped the night away. What a fun evening.

July 1st and it is Canada Day
The festivities and ceremonies are schedule to start at 9:00 a.m. So we headed over to Parliament Hill around 8:30 a.m………. bad decision and a little late. Lined up outside were about 50,000 people so, we stood in one of the many line-ups at the various gates and waited for the gates to open at 9:00. We forgot to mention that they were performing body scan and bag searches and security measures.
Well on schedule the gates opened and the Pageantry started on time, so we got to see the Bands and Pipers and Guards go by to begin the ceremonies. Now a key learning and a note for the future. The changing of the guard etc occurs on the east side of the lawn and that delays the people getting allowed into this area. In the future we would line up down near the gates into the west lawn area.
We finally made it inside and somewhere along the way we got a few pictures and saw the Snow Birds, sang O Canada. After about 1 1/2 hrs or so we left the Parliament Hill area and headed over to Major Hill Park for the other Canada Day festivities. Well, in our opinion Kamloops has as good, if not better vendor displays, food concessions, etc as they have in Ottawa.
This is when we learned another tip for Canada Day in Ottawa. We thought we would head back over to Parliament Hill to get back into the lawn area to watch the entertainment……. Wrong. They closed the gates when they estimate that there are about 50,000 on site. So there we are with probably now about 80,000 people standing in lines trying to get in and going nowhere.
However, the real surprising thing is that by about 2:00 p.m. they wrap up the entertainment until later in the evening when they repeat the show they did in the morning. Once again we believe the variety and scope of entertainment that we have in Kamloops easily beats what they had going on in Ottawa.

The evening finished with a great fireworks display, which they thought was going to be canceled as there was a lightning storm headed towards the City, but it fizzed out and the show went on!

THE NEXT FEW POSTS WILL BE WITHOUT PICTURES….. Those will come later when we have a more reliable wifi connection.

So, Early on Wednesday June 29th we headed off on our adventure to Ottawa and continuing on to Newfoundland after Canada Day.
All the Westjet flights were on time and we arrived in Ottawa on schedule. We came out of the airport and caught the Ottawa Transit bus to downtown, it is the fastest and cheapest way to get to the City centre. Well, it is as long as the President of the United States isn’t in town. So, a normal 30 minute bus ride took 2 hours. Oh well, we are here in Ottawa.
After checking in we headed out for a walk and came across lots of people, hundreds of security officers, barricades, etc. etc. Everything you would expect for a visiting dignitary who was speaking in the House of Commons. So, we stood around for a while and along came the President’s 38 Vehicle Motorcade…..yes, 38 vehicles….and we got to catch a slight glimpse of Barrack Obama himself as they sped by.

Later that evening we walked around the grounds of Parliament Hill, or as least as close as we could get with all the work setting up for the big Party tomorrow.